Pages

Tuesday, 16 February 2016

Done in bright yellow, the cover of Ravi
Subramanian’s latest novel- The bestseller she wrote is a very bright and bold
book at first glance. The blurb of the book only enhances the feel of the book
once you read it. The tag line also attracts the readers to the book- LOVE.
BETRAYAL. REDEMPTION. The line that says it is soon to be a motion picture,
adds as the cherry on the top. The final effect is surely given by the author’s
name- Ravi Subramanian. If you ask me what made me read the book, I can tell you
that there are two factors. 1) I had read the sample chapters of the book and I
immediately knew that I had to read more and 2) I wanted to see how a
bestselling author himself can write about another bestselling author’s life-
the protagonist I mean.

According to the blurb- Paperback king Aditya Kapoor’s life is
straight out of a modern man’s fantasy. His literary stardom is perfectly
balanced by a loving wife and a spectacular career. With everything he touches
turning to gold, Aditya is on a winning streak. Shreya Kaushik is a student
with a heart full of ambition. Young, beautiful and reckless, Shreya speaks her
mind and obsessively chases after what she wants. And what she wants is to be a
bestselling author. What happens when their worlds collide? Is it possible to
love two people at the same time? Can real ambition come in the way of blind
passion? Can trust once broken, be regained? Master storyteller Ravi
Subramanian delves into the glitzy world of bestsellers and uncovers a risky
dalliance between a superstar novelist and his alluring protégé. The bestseller
she wrote is a combustible cocktail of love, betrayal and redemption.

First
things first, I haven’t read much about a writer having a writer as the main
protagonist and delving so much into his/her life with such details, making
this book a very welcome need to me as a reader. To comment on the protagonists
that the author has kept in this book, I would like to say that I fairly loved
all of them. There was no character that I hated or even thought that it
could’ve been changed. Be it the bestselling author-banker Aditya or the sharp,
intelligent, beautiful and ambitious Shreya. Or even Aditya’s best friend
Sanjay, his love interest Diana, Aditya’s wife Maya and Shreya’s best friend
Sunaina; all characters were given as much limelight as they deserved.

Coming to the storyline, I would like to
say that I liked it. The beginning of the story had kept me hooked to the book
and I kept on reading it without blinking an eye. Spontaneous, in the flow, it
seemed to be a perfect beginning. At one point in the book, I felt that I have
lived the life or seen them with the naked eye for most of the characters. I
guess that is what separates the author from his contemporaries. He writes and
he knows what he is writing, making the readers feel the script. To be true to
myself, half of the book I had kept on smiling and loving the book. The best
part of a Ravi Subramanian book is that, he always mentions people or
organizations along with places from the real world, making the fictional book
he writes all the more believable and close to reality.

I was put off the book at the moment when I
felt that it was dragging. By dragging I meant there was this one point in the
book where it had become a tad too chaotic. Too many things were happening at once,
some situations came back suddenly to the plot when it was just a passing line
in the previous chapters, making me as a reader go back and turn the pages to
re-read that scene. In the middle of the book the author suddenly shifted the
gear and started talking about the relationship between Aditya and his wife
which I felt could’ve been brought into the story gradually and not that
abruptly. As a reader, I would've been happier had the author delved a bit into the past life of Shreya rather than focusing so much into Aditya, for then the title of the book could've been more prominent.

At the end of the book, the author seemed
to be in a hurry to wrap things up. Though I admire the way the author handled
the story, I would say that it would’ve been much better had the author hadn’t
hurried things up in the last few pages and not gone too laid back in the
middle of the book. The end to the plot, I would say was nicely done and I’m
sure whoever reads the book would say that the protagonists deserved the end as
it is mentioned.

Keeping the flaws and the good things of
the book in mind, I would term this book as a very refreshing read for the
readers. My rating for the book would be 3.75 out of 5. Hoping to read a faster
paced book in the future from him.